-Caveat Lector- >From http://www.sierratimes.com/02/06/04/ar-hicks.htm
}}}>Begin Prepare To Survive By Wayne Hicks Published 06. 3. 02 at 21:13 Sierra Time xxx Let me ask you a question: How do you think you would have fared if the "suspicious object" found at Hoover Dam had in fact been a device capable of disrupting power in three states, even for a just a few days... if you'd lived in an area served by that dam's generators? 110 degrees... no power to pump water... no refrigeration for your food... no sanitation... Dateline, Nevada-- More than three thousand people have perished over the past four days as the relentless heat takes its toll in the wake of the recent terrorist attack on Hoover Dam. Authorities report that over two thousand have died from heat exhaustion alone, while thousands more wait for a chance to get medical treatment at the few hospitals capable of continuing to operate. Hundreds have succumbed to food poisoning and the rapidly spreading illnesses borne of filth from unflushed toilets, backed up sewers, and rotting garbage. Flaring tempers and crime account for a number of deaths, as well... Mankind has proven to be almost infinitely adaptable, and is capable of surviving any conditions that can be found on the earth, but he'll survive best if he is prepared for it. The 20th century practice of centralizing all power, sanitation, communications and medicine have made sure that he is only prepared as long as the trains keep running... but when they stop, then so does he, and usually in disastrous ways. Unfortunately, it's no longer a matter of if the trains will stop... it's a matter of when! Whether it be by terrorist attack, economic collapse (not as far-fetched an idea today as it was only months ago), or natural disaster, at some point you will find yourself unable to depend on the centralized systems that most of America counts on. Then, your family's survival will depend on the one person who was truly responsible for it all along: you. In this article I will endeavor to give you the minimum tools you will need to survive when the trains stop running. Shelter: I will not assume that you have a home of your own that will continue to provide shelter when disaster strikes, for the simple reason that too many people have found themselves homeless at such times. Therefore, we'll look at some emergency shelters first. If you can afford a good tent, then by all means buy one immediately,and store it in the safest place you can find where you can be sure to get to it when you need it. For most of us, this is your car's trunk, behind the seat of your pickup, etc. Get it there now! If, on the other hand, you can't afford a tent, then let's look at what you can. Start with blankets. If you have small children, then you can probably recall times when they used all the blankets they could find to make themselves a playhouse, a tent of sorts. Remember that lesson, for it could one day help save your life. If you have several old blankets, put them in the trunk or wherever, and keep them handy. When the time comes to use them, simply hang them over low branches, over a length of twine (or several), and overlap them so that they cover the largest possible area without pulling apart. Safety pins can help, so gather up a bunch of them and pin them to one of the blankets, so you'll have them when you need them. Be sure to leave openings at two ends, large enough to crawl into, but also to allow air to move freely. Once you have them suspended so that you can crawl in under them, you'll need to waterproof them, so that your shelter can protect you from rain and weather. The simplest way is to cover the "tent" with a thin layer of dry leaves, if available, then a layer of moist earth. The leaves will act like a moisture barrier, while the earth, when dry, will endure quite a lot of rain before it washes away. Additional layers of leaves and earth will help, if your tent can support them, and both will assist in insulating the tent from the sun's heat or winter cold. You can improve the roominess and comfort of your tent by digging into the ground under it. This will provide the earth you need for its covering, as well as giving you more room and some cooling. In hot weather, the temperature of the ground two feet down will be lower than the temperature at the surface, giving some relief from the heat even in the hottest part of the day. During these times, you can cool it even more in your tent with cardboard fans. All you need are some pieces of cardboard, such as the front and back of cereal boxes... waving them slowly at one end will cause air to move through your tent, cooling your skin as it passes over you. Share this task with others, even children in your tent. If you've got enough of a family that you absolutely have to have something more permanent, or if you've lost your home for any of a thousand reasons, the you might want to look into my Emergency Bugout Shelter, a simple emergency house you can build for less than $200. Water: Now you've got some kind of shelter... it's time to think about water. If you're in a tent of any kind, then you probably already have a spot marked out for a campfire, and that's good. Let's hope you also packed some good waterproof matches, or a couple dozen disposable lighters (use Bics... they last longer, and tend to work better). In fact, I'd go for the lighters for two reasons... one, they'll last longer than matches, and two, they can be used after they've been wet! Waterproof matches are expensive, and don't last near as long as you're likely to need them. I mention fire now because you may need to boil water before you can drink it... and the rule to remember is, if you're not certain the water is safe to drink, boil it! Let it get to a rolling boil, and then let it boil for at least two minutes or so, to be sure it has uniformly heated all of the water above the 190 degree "Pasteur point". Once you've boiled it, let it cool, then pour it back and forth between two pans or receptacles to aerate it... or it will taste flat and lifeless, giving little or no satisfaction. As for sources of water, this could be rain that you collect, water from a stream, or the water caught in your hot water heater, if you're at home. However, I recommend to everyone that they have a few jugs of water stored with your emergency gear all the time, just to be sure you'll have this lifesaving liquid when you need it most! One gallon jug of water per person per day is a good guideline, and figure on at least a week's worth of water! OK, you've got shelter and water... those are the basic requirements of life and survival. Food I'll leave up to you, but you might want to bone up on what plants are edible in your area. Meat is a luxury in towns and cities, but if you can get to the wild, it's plentiful... for any mammal on our continent can be eaten, although you make serious effort to learn of the potential diseases that can afflict them, and may be harmful to humans... and most of us have some idea of how to fish. I personally keep a stock of those dried Ramen Noodle soups... they get boring, but they can form a base from which to build a meal, they're easy to store, and have some flavor. Jerky is another favorite of mine, and we keep a supply on hand all the time. Flour mixed with water can make a hard pancake bread, filling when needed. Keep a couple of ten pound bags high and dry, sealed in plastic if possible! Luxuries of Survival: If you do have your own home, and are fortunate enough to be outside of town (or if you've established yourself in a place that you can count on keeping your base for a time), then you can actually be quite comfortable, even when the trains are no longer rumbling down the tracks out back... but doing so requires some common sense and sacrifice, and some expense, as well. Depending on just how dependent you've become on electricity, my favorite solution is to adapt your home to 12 volt DC power... the same power your car uses. This is because it's fairly easy to produce, and can be made inexpensively, depending on several factors around your home. If you have wind, here's a simple wind- generator system that you can build and install on the roof of your home, called a Wind-Shredder. It's made by fastening a strong fabric, such as tarps are made of, to a simple frame and pole arrangement that is mounted on a frame with a pulley at its bottom end. The pulley drives a GM alternator to charge a bank of marine Deep-Cycle batteries, from which you draw power. Below is a detail of the frame, showing a probable alignment of the pulleys and alternator. But what if you don't have wind? Well, one way is to build the 12 Volt Generator, which is simply an old lawnmower with the blade removed, and a pulley mounted in its place to drive an alternator mounted on the side. This unit will need to run for an hour twice a day or so, and will require some gasoline to run on, but it beats sitting in the dark. For the price of a used mower and an alternator, plus a short trip to your local welding shop, you can have your own little power company for emergency use. In fact, having one of these set back for windless days wouldn't be a bad idea! You could also use a commercially available 110/220 Volt Generator... they run as low as $400.00 for a 5000 watt unit (at WalMart or almost any hardware store), and have the added benefit of being able to run a 220 volt well pump while powering a charger to boost your batteries. If you can afford it, this is by far the best solution, even though it requires the additional purchase of a good battery charger (another $50 to $100)! As a last resort, and if you can afford to burn the gas, remember that you already own a 12 volt charging system... your car or pickup truck! Jumper cables or heavy electrical wire can carry the juice to your battery bank. This option will get costly, though, unless you rive a very small car. A garden tractor can be used the same way, as I did once during a week-long blackout after an ice storm. Now that you have a way to charge batteries, it's time to look at your batteries themselves. While many Alternative Energy folks advise expensive Deep Cycle batteries, I've found the best solution to be the less expensive marine deep-cycle batteries you can buy at WalMart and such places. The cost is lower, and they can handle the use you'll put them to. Get the highest Ampere hour Ratings you can afford, and you'll need more batteries for every power draining appliance or gadget you choose to use (see wattage chart, below... add up the wattage of the appliances you plan to use, and divide by 12 to get the minimum amperage you'll need to make it all work, then buy enough batteries to go at least 20% over that figure!). Using the power is another area you need to consider. If you are heavily power- dependent, you're going to have to give up some of your luxuries, or spend a lot of money to make it possible to keep and use them. The secret is inverters, and what you have to do is decide just how much 120 volt AC power you absolutely have to have. The following wattage chart will help. Look at the appliances that you need to run, and consider which you could do without. The more you can trim the list, the less power you'll need to produce, store and convert... and the cheaper you'll be living! The following chart will give you an idea of how much wattage you need to provide for your home. Again, some devices might warrant smaller inverters of their own, while one larger one handles everything else (the devices that are not used constantly). Cordless Drill Charger-- 6-14 Watts Laptop Computer--38-45 Watts Desktop Computer/Printer/Fax Machine 150 Watts 20" TV/VCR Combo 300 Watts 3.8 Variable Speed Drill 320 Watts Home Stereo 350 Watts 10 Speed Blender 450 Watts Full Size Refrigerator 475-600 Watts Coffee Maker 800 Watts Household Vacuum Cleaner 1450 Watts Regular Microwave 1500 watts Circular Saw 1600 Watts Automatic Washer 1500 Watts As you can see, an automatic washer is a power-hungry item, while your computer is not so bad. An older ringer-type washer will take less power, and of course an electric dryer would drain you dry (pun intended)... so you'll need to consider just how important these things are. Can you make coffee in a percolator on your woodstove? you've saved 800 watts! Is that vacuum necessary? Perhaps you might consider one of the 12 volt shop vacs, that draw far less juice and don't need an inverter. There are many appliances that can be purchased ready to run on 12 volts. See www.skingcompany.com for examples. If you are wise enough to prepare, these items can help you continue living comfortably without major investments in inverters. As for the inverters themselves, you must consider what you need it for. For instance, if you merely want to run your computer and TV/VCR combination, you can almost certainly get by with a fairly cheap, small modified sine-wave inverter. Here's one that could handle that load easily: The Coleman PowerMate 1200 watt inverter can be ordered from www.donrowe.com for under $200.00, and will enable you to run those items and more, with careful use. It may be necessary to choose at times which appliance you want to run, but it still beats doing without electricity. And, of course, larger inverters are available to allow you to run more equipment... but remember that more power means more batteries, more fuel and more maintenance. Some items, however, such as laptop computer chargers, and power tool chargers, must have high quality power, and these require pure sine-wave inverters. These are more expensive, but if such items are absolutely necessary to you, you'll have to go to the added cost! There are companies that actually set up such systems for you, including myself. If this is something you'd be interested in, email me for information. For more information, you might want to get my ebooks, Junk Science Survival, and The JS 12 Volt Guide. Both cover the issues of survival in greater detail, and can be found on my website, www.realjunkscience.com, along with extensive lists of other sites and resources. � Permission to reprint/republish granted, as long as you include the name of our site, the author, and our URL. www.SierraTimes.com All Sierra Times news reports, and all editorials are � 2002 SierraTimes.com (unless otherwise noted) SierraTimes.com� A Subsidiary of J.J. 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